I watched him take flight, then turned, ready to rouse the last of our wing. Jenkins would still be in bed and was always a hard one to wake. It wasn’t that he slept heavily, but that ghosts from the past haunted him. I was making for his cottage when Viridian stopped me.
Jenkins is already out with Blade, he told me.They have flown down to the ruins again.
I told him to tell me before he goes anywhere.
I marched over to my dragon, ready to take off after Jenkinsand make sure he was all right when Viridian stopped me. Those massive green eyes stared into mine.
Blade says Jenkins is well. He is currently sleeping,he said.
Then we’ll need to do the longer sweep, I said.Over the fields and?—
No.
I blinked, staring at my dragon. He was a fine beast, his scales a bright grass green that shone in the early morning sunlight, and from the moment we had bonded, he was fairly agreeable. Sometimes it felt like the bond was a little more intense than what keep dragon riders described. His mind was linked to mine when I was taken captive, so perhaps that made it stronger. I shook my head, not wanting to go back to that dark place.
Lad—
Go into the house and bring out the cache.
I stared at the dragon, looking for clues, but all I got was his intent stare. Viridian had an affinity for finding precious stones and metals in the soil, and I kept his collection in a lockbox inside my cottage.
Of course, I will, but do you want to tell me why?
He looked up at the sky and my eyes followed his, and that’s when I saw her.
At first I thought it was a keep dragon, bringing one of their riders, all dressed up in black leather and officiousness. Sometimes they came down, looked around to ‘keep an eye’ on us. We were the first riders to live outside the barracks walls, so they were naturally suspicious of us. When I caught the glint of gold scales, I grinned.
Pippin’s come to visit?I asked Viridian. She was one of the few queen dragon riders left in the country. She’d taken her queen dragon, and the rest of her wing and retired to the country.You should’ve said. We could have put on a spread for her and Glimmer. Not sure why you want your treasures though. She’s got mates of her own to provide for her.
Not Glimmer, he agreed.Her.
When the prime minister brought Pippin to our village, I’dtried to convince her to stay. In my head, it was all so easy. She had a queen dragon; we had four males. Together, we could create a power base that would rival the capital. It had all made sense in my mind, but Viridian was utterly unmoved by the idea. He liked Glimmer just fine, but as a sister, not as a bond mate. This reaction was something else entirely. I moved towards the field, craning my neck to get a closer look, but my dragon wasn’t having any of that.
The cache, now.
We bonded with our dragons differently in our village. Viridian was my friend, half of my soul, not my subordinate, and up until now, I thought he felt the same way. His tone now was sharp as a whip crack and forced my feet to move. I slammed open the door of the cottage, dragged the lockbox out from under my bed, and then pulled the key out from where it hung around my neck. I had it unlocked and then hauled it outside, just in time to see them land.
I would never mistake this dragon for Glimmer. The little queen was quite small as dragons go, having been forced to stay in the egg for too long. This dragon was everything Glimmer might’ve become if allowed to grow naturally. Glittering bright as a newly minted coin, the dragon shone in the sunlight as she surveyed the village.
I require assistance.
Her voice was distinctly feminine inside my head, while also containing a note of absolute command.
My queen.
Viridian grabbed the lockbox from me, carrying it forward, leaving me to scurry along behind him like some kind of lapdog.
And that’s when I saw her.
Women liked me. They saw a fellow who was tall, strong, and a dragon rider and that was more than enough to keep their attention. I smiled at plenty, but never had my mouth gone slack, gaping at a girl. I was staring and I couldn’t seem to stop, taking her in. That messy tangle of light brown hair? I wanted to comb it smooth, then run my fingers through it. Those bright blueeyes? They needed to turn my way. Those pretty pink lips… I swallowed hard and then strode over. Curves, that’s what I saw. I wanted to learn every single one of them after a very long and thorough inspection.
“Good morning, milady,” I said, stepping closer and offering my hand. “I am Lance and this is Viridian. And you are…?”
“Oh!” She slipped from her dragon’s back and then took a step towards me, stopping for a second, then craning her neck to look up at me. That had something flaring hotly in my chest. “I’m Lady…” She shook her head and smiled. Oh yes, I wanted to see her do that again and again. Her whole face lit up as her cheeks flushed pink. “Just Fern.”
Please accept this meagre gift, Viridian said, laying the lockbox at the queen dragon’s feet. Meagre? There was a bloody fortune in that box. One the village relied upon when the harvest failed.I collected these stones in anticipation of this day.
The queen dragon stepped forward, a claw rising and hovering in the air, before she flipped the lid and then stared at the contents. A blue topaz the size of my head was plucked out, and the dragon held it up to the light, watching the way the rays shifted within it.
